The Indian Holi Festival

This is a day when most of India is drenched in different colours, because the Hindu majority is celebrating its festival of colours called Holi. Holi for Indians is both a religious as well as a socio- cultural festival during which a wide range of colours are smeared over each other as a mark of love and belongingness.

Holi celebrations start on the night before Holi with a Holika Bonfire where people gather, sing and dance. The next morning is a free-for-all carnival of colours, where participants play, chase and colour each other with dry powder and coloured water, with some carrying water guns and coloured water-filled balloons for their water-fight. Anyone and everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children and elders. The frolic and fight with colours occurs in the open streets, open parks, outside temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and musical instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance.

I wanted this beautiful festival to feature in my work as I felt like I wasn't achieving the full colour scheme of the Indian culture through my own photography and observational drawings. I want to focus on the natural patterns created through loosely throwing the vibrantly coloured powders, possibly through tie-dying or using powder dyes on silk, then recreate these patterns with embroidery on different fabrics.

In poorer areas of India, water with coloured dye is used more often, but the video above clearly indicates that festive joy and love is still present. Watch the clip below to see how more culturally diverse areas celebrate the festival.